Maggie is forced to contend with the consequences of her deal with the Croat.
Abusive Parents: The Croat sees the Dama as a maternal figure, but she still treats him like shit. He’s visibly crushed when he’s shooed out of her meeting with Negan.
Bittersweet Ending: Definitely more bitter than sweet. Maggie has her son back, but he's clearly pissed at her, although they do seem to be on the path to reconciliation towards the end, Ginny's heartbroken over Negan's truth, the tribes people are dead, and Negan faces an uncertain future with The Burazi. Also, a war between New Babylon and the Burazi appears to be on the horizon.
Book Ends: The first episode saw Negan stopped by Maggie when she got a knife against his throat. She does it again in this episode, this time to finally deliver him to the Croat, but not before he briefly defeats her doing the same to her.
Break His Heart to Save Him: To make sure she stays away from him for good, Negan tells Ginny the truth about him: he killed her father.
Broken Pedestal: Ginny does not take the revelation that Negan killed her father well.
In the first episode, Perlie said that he didn’t drink or smoke which according to him should prove to Maggie how good of a man he is. His superior is shown to be an avid smoker and drinker and is all but said to be scheming to take the Burazi’s resources for New Babylon.
The Dama refers to Negan’s brutal, gory execution of the Burazi soldier in the second episode.
Hershel finds the hat that Negan had gotten to gift him with.
The Croat says that he and his men first visited the Sanctuary to find Negan only to find it a dilapidated husk. The Sanctuary collapsed during the second Time Skip of Season 9, with its survivors either integrating into the other communities of the Coalition, or becoming roaming bandits led by Jed. Negan later visited the Sanctuary in the second half of Season 9.
Negan tells Hershel it’s good to see him. In the Season 11 episode "The Lucky Ones", he invited Hershel to come see him to settle things between them when he was older.
Hershel voices disgust with Maggie over her obsession with Negan. In the Grand Finale of Walking Dead, Maggie said she wanted to try to move past her hatred of Negan for the negative effect it’s had on Hershel since he was born.
Dead Guy on Display: New Babylon’s borders are marked by three corpses of walkers on display and Perlie’s boss wishes they could’ve done this to Negan, too. Perlie, having become disillusioned with New Babylon’s Black-and-White Insanity, is disgusted when he sees the corpses.
Death Faked for You: After seeing how desperately angry Negan is with Ginny for her own sake, Perlie decides to bury the hatchet with him and later lies to his superiors that he killed Negan.
Downplayed with Negan towards Maggie. He lambastes her for betraying him despite everything he’s done to atone for his past actions, but admits he understands why she won’t move on.
The Croat has no hard feelings towards Negan for the latter attempting to have him killed. In fact, The Croat says he has only himself to blame for disobeying Negan's orders to the let the Kingdom girl go.
Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: The Croat says he understands he shouldn’t have killed the Kingdom girl and why Negan tried to kill him for doing so - but reveals it’s only because he disobeyed Negan’s orders, not out of having realized what he did to the Kingdom girl was wrong.
Evil vs. Evil: New Babylon’s draconian laws and showboating of their victims were already some red flags, but Perlie’s boss smoking and drinking as she demands to know about the Croat’s methane-based power suggests ultimately that they are just another corrupt institution like the Burazi they’re planning to go to war with.
Finger in the Mail: The Dama had one of Hershel’s toes cut off and gives it to Negan during their meeting as a warning that the Bricks will suffer retribution if he doesn’t do what she says.
Get Out!: The Dama promptly kicks the Croat out of her room after he introduces Negan to her.
Heel–Face Turn: Downplayed with Perlie, who was a Hero Antagonist or Anti-Villain at worst to begin with. Upon realizing Negan is good enough to devote everything he has to protecting Ginny, he gives up on hunting him down, gets Ginny to the Bricks, and lies to his superiors that he killed Negan. He’s also disturbed by their walkers on display and their intentions to start an unprovoked war with the Burazi.
Heroic Sacrifice: Negan allows Maggie to turn him over to the Croat in exchange for her son, but it ends up Subverted when it turns out the Croat doesn't actually want to kill him.
History Repeats: Negan is once again forced to play along with a psychopathic, creepy older woman who is the leader of a hostile antagonistic force.
I Have Your Wife: Perlie’s boss name drops his three daughters, claiming that New Babylon helped look after them while he was hunting Negan. However, Perlie picks up on the way his boss is using his daughters as a subtle way of reminding him of the price of failure.
Pet the Dog: Once Maggie shows up with Negan, The Croat releases her son unharmednote Minus one pinky toe and the two groups part ways with no bloodshed. However, the Dama threatens Negan with the prospect of going after the Bricks if he doesn’t cooperate, meaning it’s only a temporary peace at best.
Properly Paranoid: The Dama may be a bloodthirsty psychopath, but she ends up being correct that other forces will be after the Burazi’s resources. Perlie’s superior is more than a little interested in the Burazi’s plentiful methane-fueled power.
Pyrrhic Victory: Maggie gets Hershel back, but at the cost of giving up Negan to the Burazi, and Hershel is still disgusted with his mother for being so obsessed with Negan. Even then, the threat to Hershel’s life lingers because the Dama threatens Negan with striking out against the Bricks if he doesn’t cooperate.
The Reveal: Ginny's father was one of the men Negan killed for raping Annie.
Split Screen: The episode's (and the season's) final shot is that of the two halves of Negan and Maggie's brooding faces, shown side-by-side so that they appear as a single face, delivering the unmistakable message that they are two sides of the same coin.
Spotting the Thread: When Maggie starts acting suspiciously as they enter the Burazi stronghold, Negan recognizes it and as a result is more than prepared for a fight.
Suddenly Voiced: Ginny finally gets her voice back when she reunites with Negan and is determined to warn him about Maggie’s plot.
Took a Level in Jerkass: Zigzagged with Hershel. On one hand, he’s a lot mouthier and hostile to Maggie since he’s now a teenager. On the other, despite nearly killing Negan when he was younger, he’s actually become disgusted by his mother’s hatred for him, believing it’s caused her to neglect Hershel as a person; meaning even he has moved past some of if not all of his own grudge against the fabled "bad man" who killed his father.
We Can Rule Together: The Dama's proposal to Negan. She wants him to unite the various factions on the island under their rule in order to defend their empire against an invasion by the mainlanders (specifically New Babylon). That being said, it's clear she's going to be the senior partner in this relationship.
Negan is extremely angry with Ginny for having come to the island, and later has some choice words for Maggie when she reveals her betrayal.
Hershel barely tolerates Maggie’s presence once he’s reunited with her, due to realizing she only got him back by continuing her vendetta against Negan. He says he feels like she has neglected him due to having been obsessed with killing Negan since before he was born.
Would Hurt a Child: The Dama cut off one of Hershel’s little toes to deliver to Negan as a warning of what will happen if he doesn’t cooperate with the Burazi.
